


The One and Only My Best Friend

by Chash



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Minor Wells Jaha/Raven Reyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 14:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5668996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke and Wells have been best friends for their entire lives, so of course she's thrilled they're going to be living in the same place again. Some of her other friends seem less thrilled, but it's not like Bellamy is ever enthusiastic about anything, so she tries not to let it bother her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One and Only My Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> I really love "we're old friends and have no personal space and touch each other all the time and everyone thinks we're going to get married" for couples, but I also love it when they're not actually interested in each other, and everyone just thinks they are. So, you know.

Clarke has known her best friend since birth. Literally. She was four months old when he was born and her mom was there, helping to deliver him, because she and Aunt Helen are best friends, and Aunt Helen refused to give birth without Abby. So Clarke doesn't remember meeting Wells Jaha, but she knows, from her parents, that his crying set her off too, and the first fifteen minutes of Wells' life was crying with her, until her dad took her out to try to call him down.

They went to pre-school, elementary school, middle school, and high-school together, and while they didn't go to the same college, he went to Harvard and she went to Tufts, so they were still close enough that they hung out all the time.

After they graduated, Wells got a fancy job with a senator in DC, and Clarke stayed in Boston, but they were still best friends, even if they didn't see each other every day like they used to. There's nothing that can stop her and Wells being best friends. They don't know how.

"And now he's coming _back_ ," she tells Bellamy happily, gesturing with her beer.

"Jesus, how many have you had?" Bellamy asks. Clarke ended up friends with Bellamy mostly by accident; he's her roommate's brother, and while he has his own apartment, he still spends most of his time at theirs, because he has boundary issues with Octavia and also hates his roommates and his apartment and possibly his entire life.

Bellamy is kind of a bitter, hate-filled asshole; Clarke adores him.

"Not that many. I'm _happy_. Just because _you've_ never experienced joy in your entire life--"

"Hey, that's not fair. One time I had a threesome."

Clarke snorts. "Congratulations on not having a completely empty and meaningless existence."

"Thanks. Seriously, why is this so exciting?"

"He's my _best friend_ ," she says. "Imagine if you and Miller had been apart for three years."

Bellamy steals her beer and takes a long drink. "Yeah, no, I really wouldn't care. Miller and I can go for months without seeing each other. We don't really need to interact. It's kind of better if we don't. We communicate mostly via text even when we're in the same room."

Clarke laughs. "Okay, fine. Octavia, then."

"Still no. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy she's living nearby and I'm still amazed she hasn't left yet, but--I don't need to be physically near people, I guess."

"So you really don't have anyone where you'd be like, we've been living apart for three years, I'm so excited we're going to be in the same place again?"

He tries to take her beer again and she moves it out of his reach and he huffs. "Not to my knowledge. I'll let you know the next time someone I like moves away."

"So, never? Because you hate everyone?"

"Exactly." He slants a look at her. "When's this guy showing up?"

"Wells. He's moving on at the end of June and you're going to learn his name."

"It's not a real name."

"Your name is _Bellamy_."

"Bellamy's a name. Just usually a girl's name. Or a last name."

"Wells is a last name." She elbows him. "Don't be a dick to my best friend, Bellamy."

"I'm a dick to everyone. Don't expect me to give him special treatment just because _you_ like him."

"It's fine. Everyone likes Wells. It's impossible to hate him. So you're going to like him too."

"Don't bet on it."

*

Clarke bribes Raven, Octavia, and Bellamy to help Wells move in; he shows up at her and Octavia's apartment with a U-Haul, looking sweaty and exhausted from his drive, but so fucking happy, and Clarke launches herself into his arms so hard he hits the truck.

"Hi, nice to see you too," he says, laughing and hugging her back.

"You got ripped!" she says, pulling back to look him over. "Look at you, there's muscle in your arms. What happened?"

"My job came with a free gym membership," he says, flexing for her. "Are you going to introduce me or just check me out?"

"I can do both." She slings her arm around his shoulders and turns them back to her friends. "Guys, this is Wells, my actual literal best friend for life. Wells, this is my roommate, Octavia, her brother Bellamy, and our friend Raven."

"Nice to meet you guys," says Wells, with a friendly wave. "Thank you so much for helping me move in. I promise I'll buy you pizza when we're done."

"Come on," says Bellamy, even gruffer than Clarke was expecting. "We're wasting daylight."

"Because god forbid we move stuff in the dark, without the hot sun beating down on us," Clarke says, rolling her eyes. "What's the address, Wells? I'll ride over with you, Bellamy is driving everyone else."

Wells supplies the address, and Bellamy goes to his car without another word; Octavia apologizes for him and Raven just says she'll see them there, so at least not _all_ her friends are rude assholes.

"That's just how Bellamy is," she tells Wells. "He doesn't know how to interact with people or show affection. We're working on it. He's really a good guy, once you get to know him."

Wells smirks. "I know. You talk about him _all the time_. I think he's your roommate half the time. I saw this coming."

"Shut up," she says, with aggressive good cheer. "I talk about other people."

"Uh huh. It's cool, I get it. You're into average-height, tan, and scowling. It makes sense, if you can't get tall, dark, and handsome," he says, gesturing to himself. The effect is somewhat lessened because he's sitting down, but Clarke laughs anyway. She missed him so much.

"I could so get you," she says, putting her feet up on the dashboard.

"Hey, rental! Don't get it all dirty. U-Haul is gonna charge me."

"You're rich, though."

Wells rolls his eyes. "I don't even know why I wanted to live near you again, you're such an asshole."

"Too late," she says. "You've got a lease. You're stuck here for a year, and we're going to hang out _all the time_. We're going to get matching tattoos. It's going to be awesome."

"Yeah," he says, unable to keep a grin off his face. "Completely awesome."

*

Wells fits into her social circle easily, as she knew he would. Octavia likes him because he's a democrat and has a cat, Raven and Monty like him because he's interested in science, Jasper likes him because he likes everyone. Miller doesn't exactly like him, but Miller doesn't really like much of anyone, and he doesn't like Wells to the exact extent he doesn't like everybody else. And Bellamy--

Well, it's always hard to tell with Bellamy. He continues to claim that Wells isn't a real name, and calls him _Betters_ or _Bests_ in a way that does not seem entirely affectionate, and whenever they're hanging out and Wells stops by, Bellamy makes excuses to leave, like he thinks that Clarke is incapable of hanging out with them both at once. But Bellamy didn't warm up to her for a while either, stayed gruff and aloof, so she doesn't worry about it too much until he claims he's bailing on movie night, and then she puts together a lot of other weirdness over the last month and decides that something is definitely going on with him, and she is not just going to let it slide.

"What the fuck," she says.

He blinks at her. He's wearing nothing but a pair of pajama pants and his glasses, and she can't help appreciating it, even though she's generally pissed at him. Bellamy has a great upper body.

"Nice to see you too," he says.

"You're not coming tonight?"

"It's ten a.m., it's too early for you to be yelling at me."

"It's never too early for that. I did bring you a coffee. So you can caffeinate while I yell at you."

The sight of the cup is enough to pull a smile out of him, and he accepts it and leads her into the apartment. They go back into his room because he has caught his roommate having sex on their couch on four separate occasions, and neither of them wants to be anywhere near any of Murphy's bodily fluids. It's bad enough being in the same apartment as Murphy.

Once she's taken her customary place her favorite spot, this weird bean-bag chair Octavia bought him that's shaped like a dog, she asks, "Why aren't you coming to movie night?"

He raises his eyebrows at her over his coffee. "You came at ten in the morning to talk about movie night?"

"Not just movie night." She ducks her head. "I feel like I've barely seen you recently."

"You've been busy."

"I have not. You've been weird."

"I'm always weird."

" _Bellamy_."

He sighs. "I just haven't been feeling very social lately," he says. 

"You're never very social. But you usually come to movie night. You haven't even been stopping by after work. Did I do something? Are you and Octavia fighting? Because if you are, she doesn't know. Are we fighting?"

He rubs his had against his jaw. "No," he says. "I just--it's stupid. I'm being an idiot."

"You're always being an idiot," she says. After a moment's hesitation, she gets up, sits next to him on the bed and leans against his side. He stiffens for a second, but then he relaxes, rests his head against hers. "You'd tell me, right? If I did something wrong. I know our entire friendship is based on shit-talking and mockery, but you're still one of my best friends and I don't want to fuck that up. Tell me if I did."

"You didn't do anything wrong," he says. "I swear."

"So--are you really busy tonight?"

There's a pause, and then he admits, "No."

"And you'll come?"

"I'll come."

"And you want to play video games until it's time to go?"

"You don't have plans?"

"I set aside a full eight hours to yell at you, just in case. But you folded really fast, so yeah, I have the whole day to kick your ass at Mortal Kombat."

"You've beaten me like _once_ ," he says, but his grin is huge, and it's so fucking _nice_. She realizes, for the first time, that she rarely seeks Bellamy out, has always let him do most of the work in their friendship, so maybe it's her fault too, whatever's been going on for the last month. And she has been distracted, helping Wells get settled. Bellamy was probably feeling excluded and stupid and combative. He could have dealt with it better, but what else is new? There's never been any point in their friendship where he's dealt with emotions in a constructive way.

But he lets her drag him to movie night and use him as a pillow, and when Wells gets there he sits down on her other side and she gets to use him as a foot rest. It's the perfect movie-night situation, and she really hopes there's more of it to come.

*

Three months after Wells moves to Boston, Clarke finds out her friends think she's in love with him. By which she means that on a Saturday girls night, Raven says, "Hey, so, when you've got a crush on a guy, do you treat him like you treat Wells, or Bellamy?"

Clarke flushes and glances at Octavia, because--who asks someone about their feelings for someone else's brother right in front of them? Either answer is awkward, right? Clarke doesn't have any siblings, but she's pretty sure she's not supposed to have thing for Bellamy, but it's also kind of awkward if she doesn't.

But Octavia looks interested, curious, and not at all uncomfortable, so Clarke just ducks her head and says, "Um, Bellamy, obviously."

"That was what I figured until Wells showed up. Then I thought that was just how you showed your weird dumb friendship with him."

"You thought I was into _Wells_?" she asks.

"You're always hugging him and touching him and telling him how much you love him," Octavia observes. "And you guys are always talking about how you've known each other forever and he's your favorite person."

"Yeah, because he's my best friend."

"And you aren't pining away failing to make a move on him," Raven says.

"No. No way."

"Just pining away failing to make a move on Bellamy."

"No comment."

"Right. So, can I?"

Clarke blinks. "Can you what?"

"Make a move on Wells. I mean, if you're not into him, you won't mind, right?"

"You want to ask Wells out?"

"He's hot. Smart. Really likes the Museum of Science. I figure we can go there for our first date. Unless you mind."

"If you're just asking this because you think I'm going to suddenly develop feelings for Wells when someone else shows interest in him, I'm going to be pissed," says Clarke. "Because you guys would be totally adorable, you should definitely ask him out. Don't get my hopes up about this."

"Yeah?"

"I cannot overstate how much I don't mind you asking Wells out." She worries her lip, glances back at Octavia again. "Did you think I had a thing for Wells too?"

"Yup," says Octavia.

"Did, um--did everyone think that?"

" _Everyone_ totally thought that," says Octavia, with a roll of her eyes that makes it clear she and Clarke both mean the same person when they're talking about _everyone_. "You do really love him."

"Yeah, I do. But--as my best friend. Not as anything else." She grins at Raven. "Absolutely, positively, _please_ ask Wells out. And take a video or a vine or something. I've never seen anyone swallow his own tongue before, I want to."

Raven laughs. "I'll do a snapchat story or something. It's gonna be a Hallmark moment."

*

Clarke has not been in love with Wells for her whole life, has been actively not attracted to him, which sucked during that brief period of high school when they tried to date and Wells _was_ attracted to her, but they broke up and went back to being platonic best friends who are not into each other at all, so it turned out okay. In retrospect, she can see how outsiders might think she was interested in him, but--it honestly had never even occurred to her. She and Wells have never believed in personal space, and they show affection as easy as breathing. It's nothing romantic; it's how they are. It's just _them_.

She's not sure what to say to Bellamy about that. There's no good way to casually just drop _Hey, by the way, I'm not at all romantically interested in my best friend_ into a conversation, not without starting other conversations, ones about why she thinks he'd care and why she wants him to. Obviously, it's a conversation she should have with him, but she can't quite figure out how.

Raven texts the night of her and Wells' second date and says, _how have you not told bellamy_

 _Told Bellamy what?_ she replies, which is, admittedly, kind of a dick move, because she knows exactly what Raven means.

_you need to go to his place asap. seriously_

Clarke's pulling on her shoes as she texts, _Is he okay?_

_he is the WORLD'S BIGGEST DUMBASS. he should be a tourist attraction. like america's biggest rubber band ball, but a fucking idiot. you can tell him i said that_

Murphy's the one who opens the door when she gets there, and he gives Clarke his usual unimpressed once over before wandering off, leaving the door open. Bellamy assures her Murphy can talk, but she's never actually witnessed it. Not that she really wants to talk to him or anything. She knows her way around the place without his help, and he is, by all accounts, a massive douchebag.

Bellamy is in his room with a package of frozen peas over his eye.

"What the fuck!" she says, pulling his hand down so she can inspect the damage. "Do you have a _black eye_?"

"Raven punched me," he admits.

"She was the one who texted me to come over," Clarke says, pushing him down so he's sitting on the bed and taking the peas from him. She was pre-med for a little while, she can take this one. "How did you piss her off this badly? I figured if she hadn't punched you yet, she wasn't going to."

"I punched her date," he admits, looking as sheepish as she has ever seen him look.

Clarke's hand stills. "You punched _Wells_?"

"I remember how it was with Finn," he mutters. "When he pulled his shit on you and Raven. I saw the two of them when I was picking up takeout and--I don't know. I knew it's couldn't be the same, but I've been kind of wanting to punch him for three months, and he was kissing Raven, and I thought you were in love with him and he was going to break your heart."

"This might actually be the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"Yeah, it's definitely in contention."

"Raven asked me before she asked him out. She'd never go out with him without telling me."

"I know."

"You just really wanted to punch Wells."

"If it helps, I regretted it basically instantly. It was like punching a sack full of kittens. He's the nicest person I have ever met in my life, it was really hard hating him. And then Raven punched me a lot harder, so I regretted it even more."

"You're lucky she didn't break your nose."

"I know." He wets his lips and flicks his eyes up to her. "You're not in love with Wells."

"No. I was going to tell you."

"You don't have to keep me informed about who you're not in love with. I don't need an exhaustive list of people you don't want to date."

There's a moment when she thinks about letting it go, because he really is the biggest dumbass in the entire world, and maybe she should try to date someone who is less of a failure. Who has never punched her best friend in a fit of irrational jealousy and outrage on her behalf.

But she is in love with him, and Raven did tell her to come over. Which means they probably talked to him, told him he was an idiot, and made peace.

"It would be a lot easier if I just gave you a list of people I do want to date," she says. "It's so much shorter than the list of people I don't want to date."

"Yeah? How many people are on it?"

It's a little awkward to lean in, with the peas still on his eye, but she manages, brushes her lips against his, light and soft. His hand comes up to cup her jaw, and she lets herself fall into his lap, deepen the kiss.

"Jesus Christ, fuck the stupid peas," he says, taking them out of her hand and tossing them aside to parts unknown. He slides his hands to her hips to draw her closer, kisses her long and slow and dirty until she nearly melts into him.

"You're never allowed to punch my best friend again," she says, stern, when she finally manages to pull away. "Ever."

"Like I said, worst thing I've ever done," he says, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt. "I'm definitely going to hell for that."

"Not _just_ that."

"Yeah, I guess there are a lot of reasons." He laughs softly, kisses her again. "So, um, who else is on the list of people you want to date?"

"Don't fish for compliments," she says, but he honestly does look a little nervous. She tangles her hand in her hair. "Just you. End of list."

"Good," he says. "Me too."

*

"Sorry my boyfriend punched you in the face," she tells Wells the next day. They're getting lunch, partially so Clarke can apologize and partially so she can check how he looks. His black eye isn't as impressive as Bellamy's; Raven really does pack a punch.

"Yeah, he apologized too," Wells says. "You couldn't have told him we weren't a thing?"

"I was working up to it."

"Work faster next time." He grins. "Not that I generally approve of random acts of violence, especially against me, but it was kind of cute how indignant he was. He gave us a lecture on being better friends and realized halfway through there's no way we'd do anything behind your back and offered to pay for our dinner."

"And then Raven punched him?"

"And made him pay for dinner. She's the perfect woman, honestly."

"I thought she might be, yeah." She tucks her hair back. "Did everyone know but me?"

"Which part?"

"That Bellamy was jealous of you."

"Oh, yeah. I had him pegged in five seconds."

"And you couldn't have told _me_?" she grumbles. "I thought he was mad at me. Or, like--depressed or something."

In a lifetime of unimpressed looks from Wells, this one is close to the least impressed. "I kind of did," he says, and she remembers their first meeting and has to admit he kind of did. "But you had to get there on your own," he adds, all condescension. "You know, everyone goes at their own pace, you had to--"

"God, I'm _glad_ my dumbass boyfriend punched you in the face. You deserve it. Asshole."

He grins. "You do have a type."

"Yeah, well," she says, unable to keep the smile off her own face. "So do you."

"Cheers," he says, raising his water glass. "To our dumbass friends and significant others."

"Cheers," Clarke agrees, and clinks their glasses together.

**Author's Note:**

> Bellamy POV [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5691655/chapters/13111372)!


End file.
